Arthur's Armour
by Volcanic Plug
Summary: There's something wrong with Arthur's armour. It must be Merlin's fault.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: There's something wrong with Arthur's armour. It must be Merlin's fault.

Disclaimer: Not mine

Author's Note: I'd just like to take the chance to say a massive thank-you to everyone that reviewed or favourited Emrys Revealed. I was totally overwhelmed by the response – the most reviews I have ever received! This is clearly a lovely fandom It has really motivated me, so I have decided to make a conscious effort to actually write down more of the stories that float around my head!

A few people in the reviews mentioned a continuing it, but at the moment I don't have any plans to. As tempted as I am to continue it and get more of your wonderful reviews, I always imagined as just a cheeky little one-shot. So for the time being, I will leave the reaction to your imagination!

So this probably isn't as good – I don't think it's as funny, but I hope you like it! It was going to be a oneshot, maybe with an epilogue. But it's sort of got away from me a bit and will probably be a two-shot instead!

* * *

Well of course, he'd noticed that he'd had a few lucky escapes recently: a misdirected arrow in a hunt that luckily didn't pierce his armour; a bandit that seemed to have a similarly weak hit with a sword and that strangely heavy rock that probably should have dented his helmet at least, if not knocking him out completely.

But now he KNEW something was wrong. It was common knowledge that the only way to survive a fight with Percival was to make damn sure you kept out of his way. Every one of them had experienced the feeling of finding yourself suddenly lying on the floor, staring up at Percival's triumphant face after a good solid hit had sent you sprawling. So the occasion when Percival had finally managed to get him was memorable for the simple fact that Arthur was still standing, and the mace appeared to have just bounced off his breastplate.

Not one to ever look a gift horse in the mouth, he took full advantage of his knight's quite expected confusion and promptly disarmed him, while the others looked on with similar amazement.

"Nice try Percival!" he said cheerily, while turning away from his victory. No point in them realising he was just as clueless as the rest of them.

The training session broke up not long after that, and to be honest, he'd forgotten all about it, until Merlin turned up later to collect his armour.

"Just what do you think you're doing Merlin?"

Merlin blinked back, a gauntlet in one hand, his helmet in the other and his breastplate precariously balanced under his arm. "What do you mean 'what am I doing?'" he replied petulantly.

"Pretty obvious question Merlin, what are you doing at this moment in time?"

"Answering your stupid questions?" He strode over to his manservant and snatched back the helmet, causing the breastplate to clatter to the floor and Merlin to jump away to avoid a stubbed toe. "Hey!"

"Did I tell you to touch my armour!"

To his surprise, Merlin didn't get angry, but answered back with a grin, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Forgive me for anticipating your every need _Sire_, but after being your manservant for over four years, and being told to polish your armour whenever anything so much as touches it, and particularly after a rigorous training session where I hear Percival managed to get a hit on you, I clearly incorrectly and _idiotically_ assumed that you might want your armour polished this time, as you have every single other time? I deeply apologise for such a foolish attempt at being a better servant."

Oh he wasn't going to put up with that.

"Apology accepted Merlin, because despite all attempts to the contrary, you are both an idiot and a fool. Now leave the armour and go and exercise my dogs!"

"At once my Lord!" Merlin exclaimed, dropping the remaining armour on the floor and bowing extravagantly before turning and leaving the chambers.

"You can muck out my stables too!"

* * *

"MERLIN!"

The young man in question jumped off his seat as Arthur burst into Gaius' chambers, where he'd be lounging with his feet on the table, idly scrubbing Arthur's boots while reading a book. He tried vainly to catch the chair before it clattered noisily to the floor. Arthur stood in the doorway watching with a raised eyebrow. "Working hard Merlin?"

"Ah, yes... well, I was just uh... cleaning your boots and I uh... Oh! Do you want me to polish that armour now?"

Arthur was unimpressed. "No, there's something wrong with this armour." He said, dropping it onto the table. "Will you take a look at it Gaius?"

Gaius frowned and approached the table, shooting Merlin a brief look as he did. "I know very little about armour Sire, surely the blacksmith would be able to help?"

Arthur shook his head. "No, there's something else wrong with it. Well, I suppose it's not _wrong_ exactly, but..." he seemed hesitant to elaborate.

"What is the problem Sire?"

"Well it seems to be... stronger than normal."

Gaius raised an eyebrow as Merlin winced behind Arthur's back. "Stronger?"

"There was a couple of things I'd noticed recently, but yesterday, Percival should have knocked me off my feet with that blow, but I barely felt it! It just bounced back! Then last night I thought I'd try it out. I hit my breastplate with as much strength as I could..."

"Hey!" Merlin interrupted indignantly and Arthur spun round to stare at him. "I mean, I work hard on that armour, you could at least try not to damage it on purpose!"

"That's the point Merlin, it's not damaged at all! I did the same to another piece of armour and look at it!" He displayed the other armour, now sporting a significant mace-shaped dent. Arthur turned back to Gaius "why would it do that?"

The physician raised an eyebrow and gazed at the armour in question. "Allow me some time to examine it Sire, and I'll see if I explain such an occurrence."

Arthur nodded and headed for the door. "Merlin, when you're done scrubbing my boots you can find me some other armour and polish that up for the time being."

As soon as Arthur left, Gaius turned to his ward with a look of exasperated suspicion. Merlin smiled back uncertainly. "Well that's weird isn't it?"

"Merlin, am I correct in assuming this is your doing?"

He laughed nervously. "Well I might have had something to do with it... but honestly, there's no pleasing Arthur! He finds out his armour is better than everyone else's and he wants to get rid of it! Can't he just be grateful and..."

"Merlin! Just what did you do? Surely you realised Arthur would notice something eventually?" Gaius interrupted before Merlin's complaints turned into a full-blown rant.

"I just strengthened the armour a little! You know, in case I'm too busy to drop a branch on his attacker, or trip them up... and Arthur never notices anything! How was I to know that his standards would slip so much now he's King that he'd let _Percival_ past his guard?"

"Strengthened it how exactly?"

Merlin shrugged offhandedly "Oh you know, strengthening spell."

"Merlin! I do know a bit about magic myself you know! Strengthening spells are notoriously tricky and unpredictable, they're almost impossible to use! How did you strengthen it without the power of such a spell shattering the armour?" To his surprise, Merlin still seemed reluctant to answer.

"Well I didn't use a very strong spell..." he replied evasively.

"Just strong enough for the armour to deflect a mace?" Merlin shrugged again.

"I may have cast it more than once..." he replied defensively "Arthur does get me to polish his armour quite a lot; I've had plenty of opportunities! I sort of experimented a little as well... built in some generic preservation enchantments – I figured if the armour stayed safe, Arthur would; polished in the shape of protective runes – that was _really_ effective; and of course if you enchant each item separately, then link them..."

Gaius looked on with no small amount of amazement as his ward launched into an enthusiastic description of the magic he'd performed on the armour, before wandering over to examine the result himself.

"...of course the problem with _that_ is..."

"Merlin!" Gaius exclaimed, cutting the warlock off unceremoniously.

"What? Come on, Arthur needs as much help as he can get – I thought invincible armour would go nicely with his unbeatable sword!"

"No Merlin, I'm not telling you off!"

The warlock looked surprised "You're not? I mean, you tell me often enough not to use my magic _for _doing my chores, I figured you'd be just as angry with me using magic _while_ doing my chores." He paused, as if waiting for Gaius to change his mind and jump in with a lecture. "And Arthur did notice, was obviously suspicious enough to come and ask you, rather than the blacksmith..."

"Well, perhaps you were a little reckless – I think we can safely say you can stop strengthening it now." Merlin had the good grace to look a bit sheepish at that "But really Merlin, this is _beautiful_ magic." He said, admiring the armour again.

Merlin just gaped "What?"

"It's very well done, I had no idea you were capable of such refined work! It's wonderfully intricate and subtle, I really can't believe you've achieved this!"

"I...you...what?" his ward stuttered back.

"Merlin, you've been able to do magic so instinctively and easily for such a long time – I've just never seen you work on something so hard..."

"Wait a minute! I had to work hard on that re-animation spell for Valiant's shield! And that spell to enchant the lance..." the warlock interrupted indignantly.

"But you were new to spells then – your trouble was half pronunciation and half...accessing the power you have. This isn't power, its delicate work! Difficult! How long have you been working on this?" Gaius replied encouragingly.

Merlin seemed to finally catch on to the fact that he was being complimented, rather than berated for once, but still seemed rather stunned by this development. "Uh, a couple of years now I guess...but you're right, I should probably stop if Arthur's noticed."

A couple of _years? _Gaius just shook his head ruefully. That boy, working so hard to keep Arthur safe, even whilst scrubbing his floors and picking up after him...

"In fact" he continued with a sigh, "I'll have to start all over again if he gets it into his head that there's something wrong with this set. What are you going to tell him?"

"I'll just tell him that his armour's of a much higher quality than most others – this was a gift from his father, correct?" Merlin nodded in agreement. "Well then, he probably won't question it."

"Thanks Gaius!" Merlin yelled as he bounded out of the door, back to work.

* * *

Well there you go, hope you like! There is another chapter (the last) almost done, just needs a bit of tweaking. I'd appreciate any reviews!


	2. Chapter 2

So here we are! The final chapter! And the first time I've ever posted a second chapter! I was planning on updating sooner, but unfortunately I think my laptop is in the process of dying slowly and painfully. Thanks to everyone that reviewed or alerted the first chapter!

* * *

It was some time later, long after Arthur had found out about Merlin's magic and not quite as long after Arthur had forgiven him for it, that the King found out exactly what was wrong with his armour.

He'd been taking a well-earned break (in his opinion) from ruling the kingdom, by going for a leisurely ride with his wife and closest knights. But, as Merlin frequently pointed out, it was practically impossible for the King to leave the city without some sort of trouble befalling him. So inevitably the party returned several hours late, with a variety of minor injuries, including an arrow wound to Arthur's shoulder.

He wasn't surprised when Merlin ran out to the courtyard to meet them. In fact by now he was well used to being simultaneously told off and fussed over; then being regaled with many tales of prior incidents when his court sorcerer had told him that something would go wrong and he should've brought Merlin along. However, Arthur wasn't prepared for the look of complete shock and frank _incomprehension _as Merlin exclaimed "What happened!" He sounded rather too distressed – it was only a shoulder wound after all.

"Well there were these bandits..."

"Of course it was bandits! What happened to you armour, you clotpole?"

Arthur stared at him blankly. "My armour?"

"Yes Arthur, you've damaged your armour, or haven't you noticed?" Merlin shot back angrily, starting to pull off the rest of the suit.

"I've damaged my shoulder, or didn't you notice?" he returned, trying very hard not to sound like a petulant child.

"Oh I can fix that in a heartbeat, but Arthur, your armour! Just look at it!"

At least the rest of his knights were also regarding Merlin like he'd gone mad. He was just considering clouting Merlin over the head for being infuriating, when the warlock suddenly exclaimed "Wait, this isn't your armour!"

"What are you talking about Merlin, of course this is my armour, I'm wearing it aren't I? Or I was until you pulled it off me and started cradling it like a wounded animal!"

The warlock completely ignored that jibe and continued examining the armour as one would an injury on a loved one, before answering calmly, as if reassuring himself. "This isn't your armour – it's different." He turned to Arthur with a grin "I've spent hours of my life polishing your armour, I think I'd recognise it when I saw it!"

Arthur sighed heavily and rolled his eyes in exasperation. "This is new armour Merlin, a gift from King Lot when the treaty was signed. But I'm afraid that doesn't make it any less _my _armour."

Merlin scowled darkly. "Typical! I knew this would happen! What was wrong with your other armour? This stuff is clearly about as useful as a hole in a bucket!"

Well _that _wasn't very fair. "This armour is newer and is therefore better!"

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"No it's not!"

"Well _why _not?"

"Because _this_ armour is not covered in enchantments and strengthening spells to keep you safe you cabbage-head! No wonder it buckled with a simple arrow! I spent 2 years working on that armour and now, without warning, you go and replace it with _this_ because it's _shinier_!"

"Enchantments? What?" Arthur was confused...wasn't his old armour just good quality? Wasn't that what Gaius..._oh_ of course, Gaius had been lying for Merlin _again_.

"Couldn't you have least told me so I could've put _some _protection on it? I mean it wouldn't be anywhere near as good, but..." Merlin had launched himself into quite a rant now and was regarding both Arthur and the suit of armour with similar looks of disdain.

"You enchanted my armour!" Arthur interrupted forcibly.

Merlin shut up pretty quickly, seeming to take this as a reprimand and Arthur immediately regretted his tone – the warlock was occasionally still quite twitchy about his magical deeds. He adopted an expression that the King had swiftly learnt to recognise as 'Oops, I've made Arthur angry, should I lie to calm him down, or tell him the truth and let him yell at me?' After a lot of trial and error, Arthur had found that the best strategy when faced with this scenario was to ask Merlin another question, while trying not to sound _quite _so confrontational about it.

"How was I supposed to know that!" Ah, maybe slightly less confrontational than that...

"Uh, well...I suppose you couldn't. Though you did notice it was better! Why would you want to replace it?" Arthur remained silent, hoping Merlin would elaborate without prompting. He did tend to get uncomfortable and start blabbering if he thought Arthur was sulking. "I only enchanted it a bit! Just to strengthen it a little and give you a tiny edge? You were always damaging it and yourself at the same time. You know that time in the Valley of Kings? The arrow did pierce your armour. You nearly died! I had to do something..." He noticed with interest that his court sorcerer looked slightly embarrassed and was avoiding Arthur's eyes, instead choosing to fuss over his shoulder.

Truthfully, Arthur wasn't angry at all, he'd just been taken aback by Merlin's vehement defence of his _armour _of all things. He felt a familiar rush of affection accompanied by a tiny stab of guilt that always came when he thought of the many things Merlin had done for him, without any recognition at all for years. By now most of the big dramatic events had come out (at least he fervently hoped so), but the King was still regularly faced with these thoughtful little things, like protective runes carved into the underside of his throne and invisible amulets over his wife's bed.

So, tempted as he was to let Merlin squirm for a bit longer, he did feel grateful...

"Well you better get started repairing this set then Merlin" he said, motioning to the damaged armour and starting to head into the citadel.

"You know I'm not actually your servant anymore?" Merlin said, trailing behind the King.

"Really Merlin? When on earth did this happen? I'm sure, I never noticed a thing"

"Don't tell me you're actually going to keep this armour Arthur?" Merlin questioned, rolling his eyes at his King's sarcastic response.

"I'm going to have to use that for tournaments at least, seeing how you've given me an unfair advantage." After all, he never used Excalibur in tournaments for that very reason.

Merlin didn't look very happy about that. "Are you sure?" he replied dubiously. "Quite a lot of people try to kill you during tournaments you know."

Arthur ignored that comment. "Better get started now Merlin, as you're clearly not as good as you claim..." He was not disappointed by the indignant expression that turned to him. "After all, did I hear you say it took you two years to enchant my armour?"

* * *

Well here you go! I hope you enjoyed it! I've got a couple of other pieces in the pipeline, one that's mainly written and one that's in the planning stages. Unfortunately I've got a big deadline at the end of the month, so I can't promise anything will turn up before then (unless I end up procrastinating more than I should)!


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